M Notes: Mon, 2-9

LAST WEEK:

Markets:  The Dow30 breaks 50,000 for the first time.

S&P roller coaster last week:  Up, Down a lot, Down, Down a lot, and Up significantly. 

Fed Balance Sheet:  $6.606 Trillion.  

ISM:  The Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing index rose from 47.9 up to 52.6.  Manufacturing represents about 30% of the US Economy.  ISM’s Services index dropped from 54.4 down to 53.8.  Services represents about 70% of the US Economy.   A number below 50 implies a contraction, while a number above 50 implies an expansion. 

Jobs:  Due to the short Government Shutdown, the Jobs number for January has been delayed for a week.  The ADP employment report showed private payrolls dropped from 41,000 in December, down to 22,000 in January.  

Metals:  Gold finished the week at $4,989.  Silver finished the week at $77.

National Debt:  $38.715 Trillion.   

Unemployment:  The January Unemployment numbers were delayed due to the new Government Shutdown.  

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THIS WEEK:

Focus of the week:  Although it was delayed a week, the new Jobs and Unemployment numbers come out on Wednesday.   Expectations are for the Jobs number to move up from 50,000 to about 65,000.  The U3 Unemployment number is expected to remain at 4.4%. 

Calendar:   Retail sales (Tue); Jobs and Unemployment numbers (Wed);  Existing Home Sales (Thu); and the CPI (Fri). 

Earnings:  Some of the companies reporting this week:  AnheuserBusch InBev, Applied Materials, AstraZeneca, BP, Cisco, Coca-Cola, CVS, Duke Energy, Ferrari, Gilead Sciences, Mariott, McDonald’s, Nestle, Siemens, Spotify, TMobile, and Unilever.

* The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general.    The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks.  The NASDAQ Composite Index is an unmanaged, market-weighted index of all over-the-counter common stocks traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System.  Yahoo! Finance, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and Barron’s are several of the sources used for financial information. 

* The National Debt figure comes from usdebtclock.org.   

* Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and are not intended as investment advice or to predict future performance.  Consult your financial professional before making any investment decision.  You cannot invest directly in an index.   Past performance does not guarantee future results. No strategy can assure a profit or protect against a loss.  Investments in the securities markets involve risk, such as loss of your principal.